To the Depths of the Red Sea

After spending two weeks in the hot, dry desert sun at Midburn, I was in desperate need of some beach time, and was itching to explore the underwater world of the Red Sea. Two years ago I discovered scuba diving while working in a marine ecology lab in Canada, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. I had already been diving in Eilat, Israel, which is on the Red Sea, but the vast majority of the coral there is dead due to the huge amount of development and activity in the area. Dahab, Egypt, on the other hand, is a much less developed city about 2 hours south of EIlat and the reef there is much more intact. I had never been diving in a fully-functioning reef ecosystem before, and being only two hours away, I couldn’t resist. So I made Egypt my next destination.

Breathing underwater in Dahab, Egypt

I had heard great things about Dahab from other travelers and really wanted to check it out. Half the people I talked to, including my parents, told me to absolutely never go to Egypt under any circumstances because there is a 120% chance that being a white American Jew would get me kidnapped and killed by terrorists. The other half–those who had actually been to Egypt recently rather than just reading the news–told me that it’s incredible and I absolutely have to go. Something I’ve learned while traveling is that no place in the world is anything like how it’s depicted in the news, ever. The media paints a picture of places like Egypt as war-strewn wastelands inhabited exclusively by terrorists because that’s what makes TV channels a profit, but in reality the vast majority of people there are just regular nice people living their lives. And it just so happens that these regular nice people in Egypt are extremely easy to find because they will go out of their way to help you and make you feel welcome. So, though I was a bit nervous about going somewhere with so little control over ISIS (I know I’m contradicting myself a bit here; all I know about ISIS is what I’ve read in the news, and I’m sure that’s not the full picture, but I still find them terrifying), I decided to listen to those with first-hand experience in Egypt, and headed south. I found some comfort in the fact that, since I would be traveling on Egyptian buses rather than tourist buses and would certainly not be staying in a resort, I would probably not be a likely target.

This is what tourist Egypt looks like. Camels, dive tanks, and friendly people. No terrorists here.

I left Midburn with my life’s belongings packed into my backpack and asked around for a ride to the main road where I could hitchhike south towards the Egyptian border. While waiting for a lift on the highway, a girl walked up to me and told me that she, too, was headed south. We decided to stick together–hitchhiking is safest and easiest in male/female pairs (people perceive you as less of a threat if there’s a female in your group, and creepers are less likely to stop if there’s a male present). I found out that she was from Mexico and had been traveling around Israel for a couple months, juggling on the streets to fund her travels. I had been thinking I’d spend the night camping in Mitzpe Ramon, an area with beautiful hiking trails in the desert, so that I could do a morning hike before crossing the border into Egypt the next day. Alejandra was headed down to the Desert Ashram, a meditation center a bit past Mitzpe Ramon, to visit a friend there. Somewhere in the midst of our conversation, she invited me to come to the Ashram with her, and in my peaceful post-midburn not-ready-for-the-real-world-yet state of mind, that sounded perfect, so I ditched the hiking plan and stuck with her to go meditate.

After a few more minutes of waiting, a truck pulled over to the side of the road. The driver was an Arab guy who didn’t speak any English, but luckily Alejandra and the trucker both knew a little bit of Hebrew. She told him where we were going and he replied “me too,” which we figured must have been a misunderstanding, because why would this Palestinian trucker be going to an Israeli meditation center? But, sure enough, it wasn’t a misunderstanding, and 2 hours later he pulled the truck into the parking lot, got out, and took his clothes off. All of them. After 2 hours of awkward silence where we could barely communicate, I was now seeing this middle-aged man standing naked in a public parking lot, in full view of the highway. If I had been coming from anywhere but a Burning Man event, this would have terrified me, but, after 2 weeks of witnessing the world’s most radical self expression at Midburn, I accepted it as normal without thinking twice. It was only a couple weeks later when I realized that a trucker who picks up hitchhikers and gets naked next to the highway is, in fact, not an everyday sight. In my mind I applauded him for possibly being the most awesome nudist trucker in all of Israel.

We walked into the area of the Ashram together, two of us clothed and one not. The Ashram was mainly outdoors and consisted of several huts and shade structures surrounding a large grassy field. As we walked in, we noticed that the trucker was not the only naked person, and soon found out that they had just finished a nudist festival a couple hours earlier. Again, this seemed totally normal after Midburn, so without hesitating, I took my clothes off and set off to find out what this meditation center was all about. I had my first nudist experience as the only non-dreadlocked person in a naked meditation circle under the desert sunset and slept on a mattress that had been conveniently placed in the middle of a field with a perfect view of the Milky Way above me.

The only picture I have from the Ashram. Didn’t get any nudes. Sorry/you’re welcome.

The next day I said goodbye to my new nudist friends and headed south, meeting a German woman along the way and convincing her to also come to Egypt and then meeting up with a friend from Midburn just before the border. The three of us walked across the border and crossed into Africa. There was an abrupt change as we crossed from the Israeli border station into the Egyptian building. Where there used to be border officers standing at attention with their machine guns ready, there was now a group of men sitting around a table smoking cigarettes and playing cards, machine guns casually laying next to them, paying absolutely no attention to the x-ray machine that looked like it was from the 1800s. They gave us a form to fill out which took about 30 seconds and then made us wait a few more minutes before one guy was ready to stamp our passports, presumably because he had to finish his cigarette before going back into his booth. I got the feeling that this general attitude difference towards police work may be a part of the reason why terrorists have been able to attack so many Egyptian police recently but not Israeli police. As a traveler it was quite nice though, to have a relaxed border crossing without the rapid-fire questions and the deathly stares of the Israeli officers.

Our second indication that this place was totally different from Israel/any westernized country was when a taxi driver offered to take us to the bus station. For the hefty price of 60 cents a person, he offered to save us the 10 minute walk, and we accepted. Immediately the competing taxi drivers closed in, seeing an opportunity for business. We stood there uncomfortably as 5 or 6 taxi drivers battled for our $1.80, one of them trying to take our bags out of the taxi that we had put them in while others attempted to push and shove each other out of the way. I felt bad that they had so little business that they were physically fighting over $1.80, but eventually the originial offerer won the battle and we got in his car. We then hopped on a bus to Dahab, getting a few friendly waves as the only white people on the bus. Two hours and six military checkpoints later (they have passport checkpoints all over Sinai to control for visas and keep tourists safe), we arrived.

For the first time in several months, I stayed in a single private room in a hotel. After sleeping exclusively in hostel dorms, tents, couches, and floors for the last couple months, it was hard to turn down my own room for $5 a night. Even though I had two new friends staying at the same hotel, by the second night I already found myself lonely in my room and missing the communal vibe of hostels, and I vowed never to stay alone in a private hotel room ever again. Something I learned about myself while traveling is that I would choose community over comfort any day. That was solidly reinforced by my hotel experience in Egypt, because even in a nice fluffy bed in a place with nobody snoring, fucking, or stumbling in at 6am and slamming the door in my room, I can’t be comfortable if I’m lonely.

There were benefits of that hotel though, and those were their proximity to the best (/worst) falafels in the world, their connection with the cheapest dive shop in Dahab, and their full stock of snorkel equipment for hotel guests. I was in Dahab for six days, and ate upwards of 15 falafel sandwiches from a place called Yum Yum Falafel, which had a regular falafel sandwich for 50 cents and an extra-large “Yum Yum Monster” falafel sandwich with every topping under the sun for 85 cents. Needless to say, I never tried the regular-sized option. By the end of the week, the guy who worked there knew us so well that he would give us a pita and let us come behind the counter and put together our own sandwiches with as much of whatever we wanted on it (falafel, eggplant, hummus, shakshuka, tahini, bell peppers, etc.). He also taught me how to make falafel, which I have yet to try on my own. So hit me up if you want an experimental home-cooked falafel meal. Though I don’t think I can stomach it quite yet…not having a solid shit for the following week made me never want to see, smell, or taste falafel again.

A photo from one of the dive sites

Anyways, I’ve gotten way off topic with this post, so I’ll come back to the main reason that I went to Egypt in the first place: the coral reefs. I originally planned to do just a couple dives and spend most of my time snorkelling in order to save money. But, my first day there I met some Germans (because Germans are everywhere) and went snorkelling with them and was totally blown away by how beautiful the reef was. I had to go deeper. After realizing that an Advanced diving course was way cheaper in Egypt than most other parts of the world, I decided to go for it. Six dives later, I’m now certified to go down to 100ft (previously was only 60’).

Chillin 100ft under

The underwater world of Dahab is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. Tens of thousands of fish (or more?) swam in every direction exhibiting every color of the rainbow, soft coral swayed back and forth and appeared to be breathing, rays and lionfish hid amongst the hard coral and the rocky bottom, and sea turtles swam slowly through the depths. My favorite dive was from Bells to Blue Hole, a drift dive down an underwater slot canyon, through rock tunnels, and then out to a seemingly endless wall bursting with life of every shape, size, and color, which dropped out of sight even in water with 100+ foot visibility. The dive ended at the Blue Hole, a famous dive site which drops to about 500 feet depth only a couple feet from the shore.

Lionfish

The Blue Hole from above

Underwater slot canyon

The other most notable dive for me was my first night dive. Diving at night is incredible; there is a completely different set of species that are out and about, and there’s something really exhilirating about being in the darkness and only able to see what’s lit up by the circle of your flashlight. Neon red Spanish Dancers (a type of large sea slug) flapped their bright white wing-like fin things endlessly as other nudibranchs of all colors of the neon rainbow made rocks look like an acid rave. A giant sea turtle slept under a rock as sea cucumbers snaked their weird worm-like bodies around the coral. At one point we turned our flashlights off and waved our hands around, watching bioluminescent plankton light up like fireflies in the agitated water. If you haven’t been convinced to drop whatever you’re doing and go diving yet, I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Just know, these are taken from a shit camera without a blue filter, and everything is 100 times more colorful when you’re actually underwater.